Mohamed ElBaradei returned to Egypt for the purpose of taking Mubarak's job from him, and he may well get it. He has been campaigning for the Muslim Brotherhood's "vote," and he now has it.
The White House needs to play a one-on-one, mano-a-mano game with ElBaradei, as he is the one they need to keep an eye on to avoid a possible radical government.
Unfortunately, ElBaradei is beating up Obama and Hillary Clinton in the public relations game. The longer the US supports Mubarak, the more we lose the Egyptians in the street. They already equate the US with Mubarak's repressive regime, and ElBaradei plays on that.
It is counter-productive for Hillary to say that the US has been "helping" the Egyptian people for 30 years, when anyone in the streets of Cairo would feel anger at that assertion. The US never pushed very hard at all, and every Egyptian knows that.
Commentators on the left and right give high marks to Obama for his handling of the crisis so far, yet that is a preposterous assessment. Even the Republican Speaker of the House said Obama had it about right, but all Obama has done is display a lack of leadership and hesitated to make any commitment to anything until the light at the end of the tunnel is visible to all. The same goes for the cowardly politicians of all stripes in Washington.
Meanwhile, both sides talk of the "maturity" and the "deliberate, necessary, slow pace" of a reaction by Obama, but silly aphorisms of how diplomacy should be conducted avoid the issue of the lack of leadership and visionary qualities of Obama and the others.
We know the outcome we desire, and the US has $2 billion/year in aid to leverage. The desired outcome is western-style democracy with free elections. The US needs to take action to do everything it can to ensure that future for Egypt. That would eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood's style of radical politics that would merely enslave the Egyptians again.
Obama needs to indicate to Mubarak that's its support for him as Egypt's leader is over, and he needs to resign and leave the country.
Obama and the US need to regain the people of Egypt by making a clear break with Mubarak and keeping the promise to make sure they have the freedom and democracy they deserve. Outside observers need to be involved in the transition to democracy. We aren't helpless to "steer" events in Egypt. On the contrary, we have the ability and the obligation to do so.
Obama needs to organize with world leaders to act as guarantors of the governmental transition to an honest democracy.
Are Egyptians and Arabs ready for democracy? Recent events have proven that democracy is for everyone, let's stop denying it.
Leadership, anyone?
2 comments:
So far we have yet to see western style democracy - succeed in a Muslim
country. Look at the chaos in Iraq!
Democracy bought us chams in Gaza and
Hizzbolah in Lebenon.
The US should be careful not to confuse naive wishful thinking with strong cultural realities of the middle east.
Mubarack is going to have two choices, stand and fight, literally, or hop in his helicopter, with his suitcases of gold and cash, and make a run to Venezuela, where Hugo will greet him with open arms and help him with his luggage...
The Muslim brotherhood is on a roll, at the moment, they have momentum...But that could suddenly change if Mubarack got really tough and decided to pacify the population by force...The only question then is if the military will obey him...He better keep that copter warmed up, things could change rapidly...
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